Best Of The Glen Campbell Music Show (RPM Films DVD)
Picture: C- Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Concert: B-
At first
a songwriter and session musician, Glen Campbell broke out as a solo act with a
TV variety show and the beginning of a string of this that became Country Pop
classics like By The Time I Get To
Phoenix, Gentle On My Mind
(originally issued in 1967), Wichita
Lineman, Galveston, Try A Little Kindness, It’s Only Make Believe and Rhinestone Cowboy. Best
Of The Glen Campbell Music Show offers music numbers culled together from
what looks like his hit TV show and it all reminds one how much fun that show
could be as well as why it was a hit.
In
singer, musician and performer mode, Campbell covers those hits and more,
including some attempts to have hits covering recent hits like Oh Happy Day. Though considered lite or even corny by some
today, Campbell was serious business and taken serious by the whole industry as
a major crossover act that was very likable.
It is impressive how much better this material is than most Country
being made today, but Campbell also rode the soft rock cycle that included
Bread and The Carpenters. This is more
obvious when his demeanor changes by 1978 when the cycle is over and his career
was soon to follow.
The 1.33
X 1 image is awful, with digititis throughout and down so many generations that
color is lame. The PCM 2.0 16/48 Stereo
is barely that, hardly recorded with any separation in the first place, but is
not bad. Extras include a set of
on-camera works with Jimmy Webb from 1975 and a later, less engaging 1978
concert in Dublin. At least there, he
attempts to sing his last big hit, Southern
Nights.
- Nicholas Sheffo
